Public safety is frequently risked by federal immigration authorities who deport illegal immigrants with criminal records by putting them on commercial flights unescorted.

Many of the illegal aliens have been convicted of serious crimes in U.S. courts and some are sex offenders or pedophiles yet the feds send them home on planes full of unsuspecting passengers without a law enforcement officer. Often the unescorted deportees cause disruptions and in some cases they have escaped, according to a Houston newspaper that reported the rather astounding story this week.

Officially, the agency that conducts the deportations, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), refuses to comment on the matter or provide official statistics but fed up agents have furnished documents and testimony that should alarm everyone who boards a commercial flight.

Of the tens of thousand of illegal immigrants deported on commercial airlines in the last few years, more than 75% flew unescorted. Among them was a man convicted of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl, another who molested an 11-year-old-girl and was described by his probation officer as a “pedophile” and numerous other offenders.

Additionally, two Peruvians who ICE officers say “have never been seen again” escaped from the airport in Houston instead of boarding their commercial flight to Lima and an unescorted Guatemalan man had to be restrained by civilians on a flight from Miami to Guatemala City.

Airlines are not notified that convicted criminals are flying unescorted because “they pose no risk,” according to the official ICE explanation furnished to the newspaper. However, the union vice president for agents in Detention and Removal Operations assures that putting criminal illegal aliens on commercial flights is “an absolute risk to public safety.”